SPORT

Chandigarh win handball championship
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, April 26
Chandigarh retained the Western Command Inter-Area Handball championship when they outplayed Halwara Area by a close margin by 20 goals to 18. This was the fifth consecutive win for Chandigarh team in this meet. At half time, the score read 14-6 in favour of Chandigarh.

KN Singh was the top scorer for winners when he scored seven goals, followed by Balakrishanan five, SS Kundal — three, A. Mattey- two and D. Ahluwalia and VRK Sharma -one each. For runners-up, KS Ahlawat scored the highest number of seven goals, followed by JS Mann — five, B. Singh — three, BP Kundra — two and Kartheebane — one goal.

Air Officer Commanding 12 wing, Air Force Air Cmde VS Govindarajan VM gave away the prizes to the winners. On the basis of the above event, WAC team was also selected for the Air Force handball championship to be held at Chandigarh from June 1 to 7. The team is : SS Kundal, J.Sidhu, R. Singh, Balakrishnan, A. Mattey, Prakash,VRK Sharma, KS Ahlawat, Ansarimar, Kartheebane, RS Rana, Raj Pal, Sunder Rajan, R Ravi, Ranganathan, PM Anil and K.Ghosh.

Akshat beats Bhavneet

Akshat Joshi, a student of St Kabir School, Sector 26, was the star of the day when he created a flutter by overpowering fancied Bhavneet Singh of PCA stadium in a three-set gruelling encounter, thereby moving into the under-10 final of the YMCA Open tennis tournament, played here at YMCA Courts in Sector 10.

Akshat won 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 while in other semi-final, Arjun Sehgal outscored Amit Chouhan at 6-0, 6-1. Amber, Mahek Thakur, Shaleen Chandra, Uzala Joshi and Prerna Tayal moved into the last eight of the under-12 girls section.

In the boys under-16 , Sahil Thapa, Karan Patnaik, Manjit Singh and Satvir Singh made it to the semi-final, while Karan, Sanjog, Kulwinder and Kinshuk Sharma were in the last four of the under-14 section.

Girls under-12:(PQF): Amber b Sonali Bansal 6-1; Mahek Thakur b Kanika 6-0; Shaleen Chandra b Akanksha 6-1.

Boys doubles; QF: Nitish and Chetnya b Arjun and Shivim 6-1; Satvir and Gurtej b Sidhartha and Kunal 6-0; Randeep and Gursimran b Sidhartha and Amit 6-2; Nayaab and Derroop b Yuvresh and Sahil 6-3.

Boys under 16(PQF): Sahil Thapa b Rohit Sharma 5-0; Simerveer Singh b Gurpavit Singh 5-2; Gursher Singh b Arjun Grewal 5-1; Karan Patnaik b H Sekhon 5-0; Manjit Singh b Gursimran Brar 5-0; Vikas Joshi b Kunal Tuteja 5-0; Gurtej Singh b Dixit Mehra 5-4 (7-1); Satvir Singh b JS Sardana 5-1.

Boys under 14 (QF); Karan Patnaik b Harkamal 7-1; Sanjog Kapoor b Anshul Garg 7-1; Kulwinder b Navjot Singh 7-1; Kinshuk Sharma b Pranav Saboo 7-1.

Under 16 (QF): Sahil Thapa b Simerveer 7-6(7-4); Karan b Gursher Singh 6-1; Manjit Singh b Vikas Joshi 6-1; Satvir Singh b Gurtej Singh 6-1.

ADMINISTRATION

Sukhna silt is profitable now
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26
The silt of the Sukhna Lake, which poses grave problems, has been turned into profitable matter. Cashing in on the construction of the Chandigarh—Ludhiana railway line, the Administration today awarded a contract to a company which will lift 50 lakh cubic feet of silt from the lake-bed and also pay Rs 30 lakh as royalty to the Administration.

The firm which bid for the contract to lift the silt is the one which is also involved in the construction of the railway line. It requires the silt to build a raised platform on which the track will be laid. Each year, about 25 lakh cubic feet of silt is taken out and it costs about Rs 1 crore. The Administration invited tenders to lift the silt and there was only one contractor who bid and was given the contract.

Actually, the man had asked the Administration if he could get earth from somewhere for the railway line but he was told that no earth was available. When the new Chief Engineer, Mr Puranjit Singh, joined, he floated the idea of selling the silt

It was implemented and now the company will lift twice the amount of the silt which is normally lifted, and also pay for it. The Administration will not pay for anything.

Watermelon sale at 27 sites allowed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26
The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has finally allowed the sale of watermelons from as many as 27 sites on different V4 and V5 roads in the city. However, the rates to be charged from these sellers per day are yet to be finalised.

According to officials of the Engineering Wing, they have been allowed to sell the melons and watermelons by paying Rs 500 to the MCC per day till the rates are approved.

The watermelon sellers, who are not too happy with the allocation of the sites on V4 and V5 roads this year, have asked the authorities to reduce the charges to Rs 100 per day or Rs 1,500 for the season, since the number of customers will be much less than when they were selling the same along the V3 roads. They have also pointed out that as per the sites allocated by the committee, there are four to five sellers along a single road which will affect their business.

Earlier, a five-member committee constituted by the Mayor to look into the issue of granting permission to watermelon sellers in various parts of the city had identified 27 locations in various sectors.